This paper empirically examines the extent to which and how local economic growth and asset location affect firm growth based on a sample of US equity real estate investment trusts (REITs) from 2001 to 2016. Using the GDP growth rate by MSA and individual property data of REITs, we construct an aggregated measure of local economic growth for each REIT based on its asset locations in different metropolitan areas. We find that REIT firm growth (measured using both book value and market value of assets) is positively correlated with the lagged firm-level economic growth measure, indicating that REITs allocating assets in areas with higher economic growth tend to experience higher firm growth. Moreover, local economic growth enhances REIT growth mainly through the growth of equity (not through the growth of debt), as REITs with more assets in higher economic growth areas provide higher stock returns to shareholders. These findings suggest that local economic conditions have a significant impact on REIT firm growth and a REIT’s asset allocation strategy can play an important role in its long-term prospects.

本文以2001年至2016年美国股权房地产投资信托（REIT）的样本为基础，实证研究了当地经济增长和资产位置对企业增长的影响程度和程度。在房地产投资信托基金中，我们根据每个房地产投资信托基金在不同大都市地区的资产位置，构建了当地经济增长的汇总度量。我们发现房地产投资信托公司的增长（使用资产的账面价值和市值衡量）与落后的企业水平的经济增长指标呈正相关，这表明房地产投资信托在经济增长较高的地区分配资产往往会经历较高的企业增长。此外，当地经济增长主要通过股权增长（而不是债务增长）来促进房地产投资信托的增长，因为在较高的经济增长地区拥有更多资产的房地产投资信托基金为股东提供了更高的股票收益。这些发现表明，当地的经济状况对房地产投资信托公司的发展产生了重大影响，房地产投资信托基金的资产配置策略在其长期前景中可以发挥重要作用。